DC Corrupts Everything, or Does It?

22 June 2011, 00:43 CDT

A friend asked an insightful question this morning about DC that boiled down to this: Is it possible to move to and live in DC without being changed for the worse? In essence, does Washington, D.C. really corrupt everything it touches and everything that touches it?

A year ago I had a very different answer. In fact, I remember almost pleading with my friend to reconsider thoughts of moving to DC. I truly feared for her, that she would lose her kindness, her gentle spirit – her goodness – in the jaded cesspool of dirty national politics.

What changed? On a macro level, I’ve started to see again the greatness of the American people. The tea parties, while raucous, have been respectful both to the politicians confronted as well as to the police officers who show up to keep the peace. At the tea party rallies I went to in Columbus, the cops tended to show up at the beginning and then most left long before the event was over. They realized the people who showed up on the statehouse lawn weren’t Wisconsin union thugs.

The people who showed up in DC to protest Obamacare were angry, but peaceful. Despite contrived claims of racist slurs hurled at Congressmen who tried to provoke the crowds by walking right down the middle of them, no one has ever been able to produce any evidence.

In the last year, at town halls around the country, people like Katy Abram stood up to weasels like Arlen Specter asking hard questions. But never disrespectful. There are plenty of counter examples of how insane (and violent) the left is in comparison.

As we approach the anniversary of 8.28 in a couple of months, I look back to how people were treating each other. I saw how respectful everyone was to the park police, who in turn reported to the organizers how impressed they were with the massive crowds. The people who showed up for 8.28 demonstrated in action how much they care about the country – as evidenced by the spotless mall. Yes, the mall actually was left in better shape than we found it.

Great men have served in Washington, DC over the last 230 years. Yes, there are bad people in our nation’s capitol. But as I walked up and down the mall, and visited the Jefferson Memorial I realized how much greatness has walked the federal halls of power in our relatively short time as a nation. If we go to Washington and always remember three things – who we are, our history, and why we came to DC in the first place – I think we’ll be okay.